


Notes & Nightmares

by Kiiratam



Series: Bees in Bed [9]
Category: RWBY
Genre: Angst, Canon Compliant, F/F, attempted comfort
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-30
Updated: 2019-08-30
Packaged: 2020-09-30 09:15:37
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,561
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20444729
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kiiratam/pseuds/Kiiratam
Summary: Ruby makes her final preparations before slipping out the door to Haven Academy.Takes place in Volume 3, Chapter 12, at the end of the timeskip. (My BMBLB fic index)





	Notes & Nightmares

Ruby ran through her mental checklist one last time. She still had ten minutes before JNR was supposed to show up. Backpack, check. And she'd already triple checked the contents, so she didn't need to do that again. Crescent Rose, big check. She wouldn't get very far without her weapon! Full magazines, check. All her standard Dust loads, and a few extra standard ones. It'd take a bit for her to get used to the extra weight under her cloak. Note to dad, check. Lying on her bed, signed and everything. Note to Yang, check. Right there on her desk. She'd sneak it into Yang's room before she left.

  
Thooooough that was a bit risky. Yang always was a light sleeper. What if she woke up? Would she try to stop her?

  
Yang of a few months ago wouldn't have stopped her. She would have insisted on coming along. Today's Yang... Ruby wasn't sure. And that made her slightly queasy. Maybe that was just last night's stirfry. But it was still weird. She didn't know if Yang would stop her, or call their dad, or just roll over and pretend she wasn't there. But she wouldn't come along. Ruby didn't even have to ask to know that.

  
She'd thought about it. Laid awake for hours, trying to figure it out. She wanted her sister to come along. But as she was, Yang wasn't Yang. She didn't talk, she didn't pun, she barely left bed. It'd be like taking Zwei along, if Zwei had just had an operation, and still had stitches in, and needed special food at specific times, and had eaten a weird plant that left half of his face paralyzed so he drooled all the time and couldn't really chew. Yeah. Exactly like that. Ruby sighed. It wasn't like her sister didn't have reasons, really good ones! Ruby knew she would be doing just as bad, or worse, if she was in Yang's bed. Boots. Whatever. But she wasn't there now, and she hoped she never was - that sounded bad, but Ruby knew Yang was stronger than her. If she could still be hurt this bad-

  
Ruby shook her head. There was a lot to be afraid of, but her dad had told her that there was no point being afraid of the future. Be afraid of the present, sure, but you could work with the present. You could assess your fears, manage them, control them, act. But you couldn't do any of that for the future. Plan for it, yes. Fear it, no.

  
Okay. Yang's note. Ruby went over to her desk and reread it. She told Yang that she was going to Haven, that she was going with JNR, that she had to do something. Couldn't stay here and think about Penny and Pyrrha, and wait for the adults to fix everything. Told Yang that she'd write, that she loved her.

  
She'd almost added something in there about Blake and Weiss. But Weiss hadn't written her back. Ruby didn't even know if Weiss had gotten her letter. If her father would let her have it, even if it had made it to Atlas. He'd basically kidnapped Weiss back home. From what Weiss had said, he was very strict, and he hadn't even wanted Weiss to come to Beacon. And from what Blake had said about his company... Ruby didn't think writing letters to Weiss would be very helpful.

  
And Blake - it wasn't like she'd left an address. Sure, Ruby and her dad had come across that unopened letter from Blake's parents. If they even were her parents, not a sister, or a cousin, or who even knew? Blake had never mentioned _anything_ about her family. And she hadn't opened the letter. Which meant that Blake hadn't expected or wanted it. Ruby _could_ have just snuck a peek, but first, that was _illegal_, and B, that would be really rude. And lastly, it might not even have helped, and reading Blake's mail was a lot more personal than reading one of her books. Even _Ninjas of Love_, which was about as personal of a book as you could get.

  
Ruby didn't want to hurt Yang more. She couldn't unbreak team RWBY. Couldn't ignore it, either. But she couldn't **do anything** about it. She couldn't help Penny anymore. She could't help Pyrrha anymore. Ruby squeezed her eyes shut, running through her mental blueprints of Crescent Rose. Marking parts she'd have to replace, as she got taller. And stronger.

  
She opened her eyes again. Blinked a few times to clear them. She was doing something. Not getting her team back together, but still moving forward. And the next step was getting Yang's letter into her room. If Ruby couldn't muster the courage to _maybe_ talk to her sister again, she should just crawl into bed and hide for the rest of her life. Ruby folded the letter, put it into her pocket. Left her backpack and Crescent Rose in her room. If Yang woke up, she could just say that she couldn't sleep, and was looking to borrow one of Yang's books about Huntresses. While fully dressed. With her boots on.

  
Honestly, Ruby knew that if Yang actually woke up and spotted her, she wouldn't remember any stories she'd made up. Just blabber whatever was in her mind. After years of exposure, Ruby was still vulnerable to Yang's Look. The 'where have you been, young lady' Look. It wasn't fair. Yang wasn't even a parent! How had she learned Secret Adult Truth Vision techniques?

  
Tiptoes, tiptoes. Well, not really. Blake had shared Sneaking 101 tips with them, when Ruby had been trying to get everyone cross-trained. Ruby had taught everyone to spot for her. Weiss had started writing a battle code for them, but hadn't finished it. And Yang was going to review everyone's unarmed techniques, but... Focus. Tiptoes. Not really. Move slowly, transferring the weight to the leading foot slowly. Stay to the side, where the boards met the wall. Just _eeeeeeeeeeeaseeeeeee_ the door open.

  
Yang was still asleep. Eyes moving back and forth beneath her eyelids. Dreaming. Ruby started slooooooowly moving across the floor. Just needed to get within arm's reach of the desk. Yang made another noise, and Ruby froze, awkwardly mid-step. Looked over, keeping her head still.

  
Still dreaming. Yang tensed, made the same noise again. And Ruby recognized it now. It was her little grunt of pain when she got hit. There were tons of little variations on it - Yang did get hit a _lot_, and maybe her grunts didn't want to all sound exactly the same, like a stock horse noise in a Vacuo gunslinger movie. But Ruby still knew it. Turned her head slowly, got a better look at her sister's face. Thaaaaaat was not a 'oh, I'm having a lovely dream, tralalala' face. More of a 'ouchouchouchouch' face.

  
Ruby tried not to sigh. So much for worrying about Yang waking up and spotting her. She was pretty sure Yang was in the middle of a nightmare, and Ruby couldn't just leave her note and walk away. Not after all the bad dreams Yang had rescued her from. But she couldn't give up her plans, either. She pulled the note out her pocket, and laid it on the desk. Went over to her sister's bedside. Her cloak caught the updraft from the floor vent, and billowed around her.

  
"Yang?" Ruby reached out and brushed her sister's hair out of her face. "Yang, wake up."

  
She woke up with a shuddering breath. Looking around frantically. "Bla-" Saw Ruby, standing over her. "Mo-" Actually looked at her. "Ruby."

  
"You okay, sis?"

  
Yang closed her eyes, shook her head. Opened her eyes again, but didn't look at Ruby. Twitched away when Ruby tried to stroke her hair.

  
"Want me to get water for you?"

  
Still breathing heavily, Yang shook her head again.

  
Ruby looked up, out the window. At the crow that seemed to nest in the tree there. It blinked at her. How had Yang always known what to say? She never asked Ruby what her nightmares had been, just held her close and reassured her. But Yang didn't want to be touched. And she wasn't saying anything back. Just looking down at her arms. Arm. Making a fist and releasing it.

  
This was taking longer than Ruby had planned. Jaune and Nora and Ren would be showing up any moment. And she maaaaay not have really made a big deal about the fact that she was sneaking out. Just told them that she wanted an early start. If she kept them waiting, they might knock, or call her scroll, and it wasn't on silent-

  
"Yang?"

  
"I just want to go back to sleep, Ruby." She rolled onto her side. Facing away from Ruby.

  
"Okay." Ruby bit her lip. "Yang, I..." Can't stay. Have to go save Haven. Can't see you hurt like this. Have to do something. "I love you."

  
She didn't answer.

  
Ruby went back to her room, still quietly, but not as slowly. Backpack, on. Crescent Rose, slung. Extra mags, loaded. Note to her dad, on her bed. Note to Yang, on her sister's desk. Crept out the front door. Closed it quietly behind her.

  
"Hey."

  
She turned around. "Hey Jaune." Took her first steps forward. "Haven's a long way to go."


End file.
